MISSION TRIP Nogales, Sonora, Mexico ASU Catholic Newman Center

Phoenix, 13 Marzo 2017.With a group of 25 students from the Catholic Newman Center of the ASU we departed to Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, this March 5th to a mission trip. It was beautiful to be able to go to Nogales that is one of the borders of United States with Mexico, especially at this moment in which the situation with the migrants is being very delicate. For this same reason, people are very sad. We could share with the migrants, hear their stories, their sufferings: It was painful to witness the extreme situation they are all going through, it was like listening to the cry of the Father for his children who were suffering. We tried to bring them the consolation of God, but I think we arrived more evangelized from them. They are very needy people with a very good heart and with a lot of faith, that have no choice but to risk their lives trying to cross the border and walk days and days in the desert with the hope of giving their families a better future.

All of us, concluded that we are not the same after touching, more from the inside, the existential drama that the migrants live. A deep suffering that can only be lived with God in the heart In addition, we were staying in a place called Hepac, which is a center that teaches school reinforcement and gives lunch to 120 children approximately. All these kids are from the needy colony of “Bella Vista” in Nogales. We gave them moral classes, English classes and sports lessons that ended with an Olympics. We also

made a garden with vegetables and painted some of the walls of its facilities. We did "door by door" visiting people in their homes who were materially, morally and spiritually poor. As a motto of the missions we chose the bible verse in which Jesus, after naming the works of mercy (feeding the hungry, drinking the thirsty, giving a pilgrim's lodging, etc.), says: "As you did it to one of the least of these my brethren. You did to me” (Mt 25:40).

During the mission trip, we went to mass in the Cathedral of Nogales and God gave us that same bible verse. We thought: “"God is the one who is directing all this!" The Lord gave us many opportunities to live the works of mercy. We shared with the students that we could find Jesus, not only in the formation spaces or during prayer every day, but especially in each one of them: our brothers who are suffering. God gave us those intense days to serve him in our younger brothers and sisters and to build community with the students so that we can return with the desire to continue finding and serving Jesus in our brothers from the United States.